Permanent magnets with soft material layers

A rotor of an electric machine comprising:

• a rotor core defining a magnet channel extending axially between opposing ends of the rotor core;
• and
• a permanent magnet disposed in the channel and extending axially through the rotor core, the magnet being a rectangular prism having opposing ends, opposing major sides extending between the opposing ends, and opposing minor sides extending between the opposing ends and between the major sides, the permanent magnet including:
• a planar layer of a magnetically hard-phase material that include rare-earth metal, the layer of hard-phase material having opposing major faces extending between the opposing ends and opposing minor faces extending between the opposing major faces and forming first portions of the minor sides, and
• a planar layer of a magnetically soft-phase material that does not include rare-earth metal, the layer of soft-phase material having opposing major faces extending between the opposing ends and opposing minor faces extending between the opposing major faces of the soft-phase material and forming second portions of the minor sides.

A permanent magnet having a magnetically easy crystallographic axis, the magnet comprising:

• a first planar layer of magnetically hard-phase material having opposing end faces, opposing first and second major faces extending between the opposing end faces, and opposing minor faces extending between the opposing major faces and extending between the opposing end faces;
• a second planar layer of magnetically soft-phase material having opposing end faces, opposing first and second major faces extending between the opposing end faces, and opposing minor faces extending between the opposing major faces and extending between the opposing end faces;
• and
• a third planar layer of magnetically hard-phase material having opposing end faces, opposing first and second major faces extending between the opposing end faces, and opposing minor faces extending between the opposing major faces and extending between the opposing end faces;
• wherein
• the first, second, and third layers are stacked such that the first major face of the first layer is adjacent the first major face of the second layer and the first major face of the third layer is adjacent the second major face of the second layer, and the major faces of the layers are oriented to be substantially perpendicular to the magnetically easy crystallographic axis.